Here lie eighteen centuries of light Lyon, September 16th, 1862 – medium Mr. Émile V…Mr. Émile who received the previous communication and many others equally remarkable, is very young. He is not only an excellent writing medium but he is also a painting medium even though he had not ever learned drawing or painting. He oil paints landscapes and multiple themes choosing and combining the required colors. From the point of view of quality his paintings are certainly not perfect since there have been many seen in exhibitions but have not been taken noticed. They lack finishing touch and subtleness and the shades are crisp and too accentuated. However, when we look at how they are created, it is quite remarkable. Who knows if he will not become a true painter with practice and acquire the skill that he lacks, like the worker of Bordeaux who barely writes his name but who writes as a medium and ended up developing a nice handwriting for his personal use without any teacher other than the Spirits? When we saw Mr. Émile he was finishing an allegoric painting where one can see a funeral that reads on top: Here lies eighteen centuries of light. We allowed ourselves to criticize such inscription first for not understanding the meaning of such allegory by placing eighteen centuries of lights in a coffin since, we said, thanks to Christianity humanity is now more enlightened than in those days. That happened in the session on September 16th when he received the communication above.
The spirit then responded to our observations adding the following: The expression here lies is placed there intentionally. The subject is not the number 18 representing centuries, rather it is a summation of centuries, a collective idea as if there was a time interval lasting 18 centuries. You may tell your grammarians that they should not confuse a collective idea with the idea of time span.” Do not they say to themselves when referring to the crowds that may be formed by an incalculable number of people that it may dislocate? That is enough about the subject. That is how it must be for this is the idea.
Let us now talk about the allegory. Eighteen centuries of lights in a coffin! This idea represents all the struggle endeavored by truth during this time, struggles always endeavored by the spirit of party and by selfishness. Eighteen centuries of lights at daylight would have been eighteen centuries of happiness for humanity, eighteen centuries that just begin to sprout on Earth and that would have had its development. Christ brought truth to Earth and made it available to all. What happened to that? It was taken over by human passions and thrown in a coffin from where Spiritism has just recovered it. Such is the allegory.”
Léon de Muriane
